Saw this come up on my recomended list on Youtube, and though it was really interesting:
In order to “discover how our musical past is influencing the future,” 5 DJs have been paired with some big guns in music history with one task: produce. The pairings are as follows:
-Skrillex + members of The Doors
-The Crystal Method + Martha Reeves, The Funk Brothers
-Pretty Lights + Dr. Ralph Stanley, LeAnn Rimes
-DJ Premier + Nas, Berklee Symphony Orchestra
-Mark Ronson + Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Members of the Dap Kings, Zigaboo Modeliste, Trombone Shorty
All of them look interesting to me apart from the Doors & Skrillex colab because ive had a life long dislike of the Doors and Skrillex just bores the pants of me.
But, im here to be proved wrong and id love to be surprised.
However, whilst im sure we are all interested in this project, its nothing more than what people have been doing for decades wrapped up in a glossy video vehicle for a few of the artists. If it generates some genuinely groundbreaking music as the voice over aludes to then again, ill be surprised and proved wrong or at least my cynicism will be proved wrong but, to claim that it’s “licence to make something no-ones ever heard before” is a massive claim and doesn’t just mean a new song with one artist jammed over the top of another. It better be f*cking amazing.
I agree with what you say, but what is the deeper point of the project though? Because each one of those musicians has been successful on their own, so are they just testing their skills in diversifying their sound across other genres? It’d be nice to see the new artists go back to the roots of music, such as the mo-town and the classical.
But what i’m most excited for is the documentary; I want to see how much disagreement goes on between the different artists. Should be a good documentary even if the music isn’t all that great.
Yeah i totally agree. I think the documentary will be far more interesting than the music that is produced.
What would be great to see is if the musicians learn from each other on the process of creating music because, what influences people and how they approach songwriting and that process can be worlds apart. Could be interesting to see these worlds collide which i guess could be the “disagreement” you mention.
Exactly!! Like in the video when they show Dj Premier taking lessons in classical music, it’ll be something that he’s never been exposed to. The structure and style of the music is so different from what they’re currently doing, it’ll be cool to see what they make of everything they learn. Also it explores a big “what if” in the sense that it shows how each of the musicans interprets a particular style of music, and you get a glimpse of how they would of affected that music scene if they produced it, and what their style and sound would be in that genre.
And yes, that’s what i meant, just couldn’t quite find the words for it It’ll be interesting to see Pretty Lights try and take a country approach to music.
Just listening to the Premier track, which I was most interested in, and it pretty much sucks. Not much gel between the artists at all and all Nas talks about is the collab and project itself, which is a bit of a cop out for an MC I think.
i’m a long time fan of the doors, it was the music that i was brought up with, and i am a fan of SOME skrillex, although i do like that track that they have done i have to admit, i wouldnt play it out, instead jsut keep it for home.
It’ll be interesting to see Pretty Lights try and take a country approach to music.